92. they have had champagne & cashews, whilst you've had tea & salted peanuts
another time, the hoodlums shut everyone in a train carriage on the red rattler from redfern to liverpool & made them sing, 'row row row ya boat, gently down the stream', one older man that didn't sing it was getting his head smashed in against the glass window, the dopey one by the open doorway exposed himself, he squashed his penis into a woman's cheek saying, 'you want some of this?', when she kept her mouth shut & ignored him, he smacked her in the back of the head, so that her lipstick bled across her face, then they all got off at warwick farm, these days, i feel vulnerable on public transport, i do not like to catch it during the middle of the day or late at night from certain areas, as all the riff raff are on it, during peak hour is all right, mum said, 'you're up yourself', but it wasn't that at all, anyway she got hers, because when she caught the bus from melbourne back to sydney, she thought that this big maori woman was going to sit next to her, if there was one thing that caused anxiety to my mother, it was a fat woman, a different nationality made it all the more nerve-wracking, she said 'strewth', & 'bloody hell', her lips pursed together, when she went to collect her luggage, i turned towards the woman, who held her tissues & gently spoke, she said, 'i'm over from auckland visiting my sister in marrackville, australia is a nice place', she had the biggest curls surrounding her broad dark forehead & a voice like a tiny bird, mum ended up not having to sit next to her & got a seat on her own to boot, she gave me the thumbs up sign from inside the coach, her tartan travel rug over her knees, for now mum was safe, but all this did remind me of the time i caught a train to melbourne overnight from sydney, sometime during the night this army bloke got on from wagga wagga, i woke up in the morning with his squashy face snoring & dribbling against my chest, & his spiky shaven head up my nose, i elbowed him, & told him to 'shove off', like on the XPT to dubbo this old man kept working up phlegm, going 'cowouk cowouk', & swallowing it all down in huge clumps, i left the carriage & sat on my backpack by the water machine, then another one was picking his ears with his fingers, it's best to order a double seat, you never know who you're gonna have to sit next to on long-distance trips, at least on the plane from melbourne to sydney, you only have to sit next to them for an hour, but the minute you get on you're eating with them, & then you're standing in the aisle queue, watching all the middle-class get off from first class, knowing they have had champagne & cashews, whilst you've had tea & salted peanuts, a bit more blue carpet around their feet & slightly wider seats, but still the same plane ride |
